Becker Capital Management, Inc. is an independent investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, offering advisory services to investors like you. As an investor, we feel it is important you understand the advisory services we provide, including the fees we charge, and that these differ from brokerage services and fees. This summary provides helpful information on the services we offer, how we charge for our services, and the conflicts of interest that exist in providing these services to you. To help you research firms and financial professionals, you can access free and simple tools at investor.gov/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisers and investing.
What investment services and advice can you provide me?
We pair investment advisory services with comprehensive wealth planning to create a portfolio tailored to your unique goals and objectives. We may employ a diverse selection of strategies in your portfolio, including direct management by our team, access to real estate and private equity for qualified clients, use of third-party managers, or investment in a mutual fund we manage. As part of our standard service, we continually monitor your portfolio for alignment with your investment goals and our investment team meets weekly to review potential investment opportunities.
We manage accounts on a discretionary basis, which means we have the authority to buy and sell securities without asking you in advance, though you may limit our discretion by placing reasonable restrictions on investing in certain securities or groups of securities. As part of our discretionary authority, we may also recommend and select third-party managers to manage either all or a portion of your assets. We typically require a minimum account size of $3 million, however, we may accept smaller accounts.
For additional information regarding our services, please see items 4, 7, and 13 of our Form ADV Part 2A.
Let’s Discuss…
- Given my financial situation, should I choose an investment advisory service? Why or why not?
- How will you choose investments to recommend me?
- What is your relevant experience, including your licenses, education and other qualifications? What do these qualifications mean?
What fees will I pay?
For our investment advisory services, you will pay a quarterly management fee based on your assets under management. Our fees vary and are negotiable. Additionally, you will pay transaction costs to the brokers used to execute trades in your account, and custody fees which vary by custodian. In the interest of transparency, you should know that we earn more as the assets in your account increase.
If you are invested in one of the third-party wrap fee programs we manage, you will pay a fee directly to the wrap fee program and we receive a portion of that fee for our management services. Fees paid to the wrap fee program include transaction costs and custody fees paid to the broker that has custody of these assets, and therefore are higher than typical asset-based advisory fees. If you are invested in the mutual fund we manage, the total cost you pay will include our management fee and fund operating expenses. You will also pay additional fees to third-party managers, private funds, mutual funds and ETFs, if we selected those options for your account.
Comprehensive wealth planning services are typically included as part of our investment advisory service if needed. In certain circumstances, wealth planning may be offered as a standalone service at a negotiated hourly rate based on the complexity of the plan.
It is important to note that you will pay fees and costs whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees and costs will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees and costs you are paying.
For additional information regarding our fees, please see item 5 of our Form ADV Part 2A.
Let’s Discuss… Help me understand how these fees and costs might affect my investments. If I give you $10,000 to invest, how much will go to fees and costs, and how much will be invested for me?
What are your legal obligations to me when acting as my investment adviser? How else does your firm make money and what conflicts of interest do you have?
When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours. At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests. You should understand and ask us about these conflicts because they can affect the investment advice we provide you.
Here is an example to help you understand what this means: We receive a management fee for advising individual accounts and a mutual fund. We have a financial incentive to recommend the mutual fund as an investment in your portfolio. However, if we are advising your assets directly and a portion of your assets are invested in our mutual fund, we will not charge you for the portion managed in the mutual fund to avoid duplication of management fees.
For additional information regarding our conflicts, please see item 10 of our Form ADV Part 2A.
Let’s Discuss… How might your conflicts of interest affect me, and how will you address them?
How do your financial professionals make money?
Our financial professionals are paid a fixed salary plus discretionary bonus creating an inherent conflict of interest. Compensation takes into consideration the following factors: overall contribution to client portfolios and the firm’s success, as well as participation in networking and community involvement.
Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?
No. Please visit Investor.gov/CRS, for a free and simple tool to research our firm and financial professionals.
Let’s Discuss… As a financial professional, do you have any disciplinary history? For what type of conduct?
For additional information regarding our fees, services, and conflicts, please see our Form ADV Part 2A at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/110489, or visit our website at www.beckercap.com. Please contact us at 503-223-1720 for more up-to-date information or to request a copy of this client relationship summary.
Let’s Discuss… Who is my primary contact person? Is he or she a representative of an investment adviser or a broker-dealer? Who can I talk to if I have concerns about how this person is treating me?
